Word.ws English Dictionary

mainsail

/ˈmeɪnseɪl/

mainsail noun: the largest (or only) sail on a sailing vessel.

mainsail: the largest (or only) sail on a sailing vessel
Image: Masur, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

mainsail (plural mainsails)

  1. The largest (or only) sail on a sailing vessel.
    • The mainsail was "scandalised" - a nautical mode of describing a sail reefed at both ends[.]1887, Mrs. Dominic D. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 16
    • Now stow the mainsail as follows, preferably with the sail still lying in the starboard cockpit: beginning at the head, fold the upper section so that the upper two battens are aligned together; then tightly roll the sail from the head down to the foot. Reinsert the sail into its bag.(Can we date this quote?), “RS Quest Rigging Instructions”, in California State University, Sacramento, page 3
    Synonyms:
    main

mainsail meaning in Tamil and Indonesian

mainsail in Tamil

கப்பலின் முக்கிய பாய்

mainsail in Indonesian

largest sail on a sailing vessel
layar agung

Examples of mainsail in a sentence

  • Main course and mainsail are the same thing in a sailing ship.
  • To make the mainsail fuller in shape, the outhaul is eased to reduce the tension on the foot of the sail.
  • Her mainyard was 80 feet long, and her mainsail had a drop of 40 feet.

All 12 example sentences with mainsail

Synonyms of mainsail

Forms of mainsail

pluralmainsails

Origin of mainsail

From main + sail.

Questions about mainsail

What does mainsail mean?
Mainsail means the largest (or only) sail on a sailing vessel.
What is mainsail in Tamil?
Mainsail in Tamil is கப்பலின் முக்கிய பாய். See Mainsail meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is mainsail?
Mainsail is a noun.
How do you pronounce mainsail?
Mainsail is pronounced /ˈmeɪnseɪl/.
What is the plural of mainsail?
The plural of mainsail is mainsails.

Words near mainsail in the dictionary

  1. Mainpuri
  2. mains
  3. mains hum
  4. mains'l
  5. mains'ls
  6. mainsail
  7. mainsails
  8. mainsborne
  9. mainshaft
  10. mainshafts
  11. mainsheet

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mainsail (page history and authors); mainsail (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mainsail.wav.

Cite this entry: “mainsail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mainsail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.